Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Vinnie Jones

Clive Barker is one of, if not THE most imaginatively disturbing and creatively gruesome authors of our time. His stories of the grotesque transcend what our minds can fathom or would want to. He combines myth with modern day splatter, violence with pleasure, and the repulsive with the beautiful. “The Books of Blood” is a masterpiece of horror that is a prime example of the way his mind works. Volume 1 includes a story that, just by the name alone, conjures visions of sinew, blood and viscera. That story is “Midnight Meat Train”. Director Ryuhei Kitamura (Azumi, Versus) and screenplay writer Jeff Buhler are now charged with the unholy task of bringing this grisly horror to the big screen.

Leon is a struggling photographer in New York City trying to make it as an artist as well as a boyfriend. He is working on a photo book with a “Heart of the City” theme in which he shoots the “real” city. Things that people don’t usually see. The things that make N.Y.C. what it is. He meets the owner of a big art gallery (Shields) that tells his that he needs to be more fearless and really get into the meat (PUN ALERT!) of what the city is. Taking her advice, he starts to go out late at night and take pictures of the dregs of the streets. After following a group of thugs into the subway, he sees them assaulting a lady and breaks up their fun, but only after getting pictures of the ordeal.

Continue Reading Midnight Meat Train Here

Review by Greg Baty of The Playground Movie Review